The most expensive sentence in a tech job search usually comes in the first fifteen minutes of a phone screen. A recruiter or HR coordinator asks about your salary expectations. You give a number that sounds reasonable, and it quietly becomes the ceiling for every conversation after that. Nobody tells you this happened. The offer just comes in a little lower than it should have.
At CRB Workforce, we deal with this question from both sides every week. We ask candidates about their salary expectations, and we hear how hiring managers react to the answers. The same thing happens again and again. The candidates who answer well are not playing games. They come in with market data, a range they built on purpose, and a clear picture of their total compensation.
Why Employers Ask So Early
Most candidates think the question is a trap. Usually it is a budget filter. Hiring teams have an approved salary band. Recruiters do not want to take a candidate through four interview rounds and then find a $30,000 gap. That concern is fair, and if you treat the question as hostile, you look harder to work with than you are.
The real problem is timing. In a first screen, you don't know the scope of the role yet. You don't know the on-call load or the bonus structure, or whether "senior engineer" means leading architecture or closing tickets. Any number you give at that point is a guess, and the employer gets to anchor on it.
Pay transparency laws have changed this. California, Colorado, Washington, New York, Illinois and a growing list of other states now require employers to post salary ranges. If the role falls under one of these laws, the range is already public, so use it. Try asking, "The posting lists $140,000 to $175,000. What separates the top of that band from the bottom?" Instead of defending yourself, you learn something useful.
How to Answer "What Are Your Salary Expectations?"
Three approaches work. The right one depends on how much you know.
- Redirect once, early. "I'd like to understand the scope before I put a number on it. What range has been budgeted?" This is fine in a first screen. If you redirect twice, you start to look evasive, so if they push, give a range.
- Give a researched range. Make the bottom of your range a number you would actually accept. Candidates often say "$150,000 to $170,000" while hoping for $170,000. The employer hears $150,000 every time.
- Anchor on total compensation. "I'm targeting total compensation around $185,000, and I'm flexible on how that splits between base, bonus, and equity." This works well at companies with real equity or bonus programs, and it keeps you from boxing yourself in on base salary alone.
Whatever you say, say it plainly. If you hedge with "I'm open to anything," it sounds like you haven't done your research. Recruiters often fill that gap with the bottom of the band.
Where Tech Candidates Get the Number Wrong
The most common mistake we see is basing salary expectations on your current pay instead of the market. If you have been underpaid for three years, your current salary shows that. It is not a benchmark. Price yourself against the role you are interviewing for.
The second mistake is ignoring skill premiums. A backend engineer with production Kubernetes experience is in a different market from a generalist with the same title. So is a data engineer with real streaming pipeline work, or a security engineer with deep cloud IAM experience. Job board salary data rarely shows that difference. Recruiters who fill those roles every month see it.
The third mistake is mixing up contract and permanent pay math. An $85 hourly contract rate does not equal a $176,800 salary. Contractors often go without benefits and absorb unpaid gaps between engagements. Depending on the structure, some also pay their own employer-side taxes. If you are weighing both paths, our breakdown of W2 vs. corp-to-corp vs. 1099 explains how each structure changes what a fair number looks like.
What Changes When a Recruiter Handles It
When CRB Workforce represents a candidate, we talk through salary expectations before the hiring manager ever sees the resume. We already know the client's approved band, how much room it has, and what they paid for the last similar hire. So we can tell you whether your number is realistic, too low, or likely to price you out before it costs you anything.
It also takes the awkwardness out of the conversation. A recruiter can say "this candidate is at $165,000 and has another offer process underway," and it lands as market information, not a demand. For permanent placements, that positioning often decides where in the band the offer lands. For contract and consulting roles, it locks in the pay rate before the first interview, so nobody has to renegotiate later.
The salary expectations question is the opening move. The final terms come later, and our guide on how to negotiate a tech job offer covers that stage. But the number you give early sets the range you will negotiate within, so it deserves more preparation than most candidates give it.
What the Market Is Showing Right Now
Candidates are coming to salary conversations with higher salary expectations. The New York Fed reports that the lowest salary workers would accept for a new job reached a record $88,387 in July 2026. Mercer, however, projects 2027 salary-increase budgets of just 3.5%. That gap is why a researched number matters: candidates who anchor too low have little room to recover once budgets are set.
Get a Number You Can Defend
If you are interviewing for IT or marketing roles and want an honest read on what to ask for, CRB Workforce can help. We will show you the market rate for your skills, tell you where your number is too low, and point you to roles that match the pay you want. Get in touch and let's talk before your next screen.